Around 5 p.m. last Friday, about two hours before the second round of the NFL draft was to begin, Webster Guthrie sent Alex Highsmith a video of his two kids dressed in Steelers gear. They were hoping one of their dad’s favorite former players would get drafted by the Steelers.
Guthrie, formerly the basketball coach at Ashley High School in Wilmington, N.C., married into Steelers fandom. His wife, Kristen, is from Upper St. Clair. Guthrie had heard in the weeks leading up to the draft the Steelers were very interested in Highsmith, but when he watched Highsmith get his name called in the third round by the Steelers later that night he thought, “How cool is that?”
It turns out the whispers Guthrie heard before the draft were rooted in truth. Highsmith wasn’t one of the better known edge rushers in this draft, but the Steelers were hot on the trail of this former walk-on from the University of Charlotte.
“When I look back on it they were the team that was here the most,” said Charlotte assistant head coach Marcus West. “We had every Steelers scout come through the building. They were present. The process this year with no pro days and no visits, when you don’t have that face time with a prospect, it really benefits a kid like Alex. He checks all those boxes. When you don’t have the other stuff, you have to rely on the character of the player. Alex has character.”
Guthrie knows that better than anyone. He’s known Highsmith since he was in middle school but only coached him for one season. Highsmith had concentrated on football for his first three years in high school, but he wanted to come out for basketball as a senior.
Guthrie asked Highsmith to do one job and one job only: rebound.
“We needed rebounding, and I just told him I need you to buy in,” Guthrie said. “Just grab rebounds. In the first game he played he had 14 rebounds, and he didn’t come out of the starting lineup after that. When you tell a 17-year-old that ‘I don’t need you to score,’ they don’t want that role. He was, ‘Yes sir.’ Then you saw all the other kids working harder and following in line. You give him a role, and he maximizes that role. He’s a rare kid.”
The same traits were evident for Highsmith on the football field once he matriculated to Charlotte. He was lightly recruited and walked onto the 49ers team. Described as “short and chubby” early in his high school years, Highsmith went through a growth spurt and became “obsessed” with the weight room shortly thereafter.
No one back then, not even Highsmith, could have ever envisioned he would someday make it to the NFL.
“It is just so cool to see how far I have come and look at pictures from my freshman year of high school, especially in my sophomore year of high school,” he said. “No one thought I would be in the position I am in now. Not even me. I am just so thankful and blessed to be in this opportunity and so blessed to be a part of this organization.”
Highsmith, who redshirted and didn’t play a lot as a freshman, earned a scholarship before his sophomore season, but he never forgot about his two years of being a walk-on. He continues to use it as motivation even as he gets set to embark on his professional career.
“Being a walk-on, I had a mentality and a work ethic a lot of people didn’t have, so that’s one thing I think I bring to the table and they know I bring to the table,” Highsmith said. “I think me being a walk-on was my story, something I wouldn’t have wanted any other way. I’ve always had this walk-on mentality ever since I got to college. That’s just something I’m bringing to the NFL as well, just a mindset I’m going to have in everything I do.”
Self-reliant, consistent and a student of the game. That’s how West describes Highsmith. “He already has a professional’s mentality.”
Yet Highsmith might not have been drafted, or certainly not as high as the third round, if not for a change in position after his junior season. The 49ers were 10-26 during Highsmith’s first three seasons, which led to Brad Lambert’s dismissal and the hiring of Will Healy.
Healy and West, who coaches the defensive line, studied tape upon their arrival and came across an impressive but undersized interior defensive lineman.
Highsmith was playing “four technique,” a lineman that lined up directly in front of the offensive tackle. But in Healy’s new defense Highsmith would line up on the edge, where he could better utilize his athletic gifts as a pass rusher.
Highsmith was no slouch as a four technique. He earned all-conference honors as a junior, but he only had three sacks. In the new defensive scheme, Highsmith’s sack production rocketed to 14.
“He was playing four technique at 245 pounds,” West said. “He’s strong. He led the team in tackles for losses, but that’s not him. He’s not meant to do that. That position is for 300-pound defensive linemen. When I got here I told him he was going to break the school record for sacks. He accepted the challenge. He developed a passion for rushing the passer.”
That’s part of the reason Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said of Highsmith: “We all think this kid isn’t anywhere near where he might be somewhere down the road.”
West taught Highsmith a few new pass-rush moves when he moved out to the edge — maneuvers that would take advantage of his expert hand usage and his 4.7 40-yard dash speed. He taught him a cross-chop to help him get around the edge and a spin move that he brings out every now and then.
“When you give him something new he’s going to perfect it,” West said. “And then he’s going to employ them. He’ll become a dominant pass rusher.”
Now Highsmith will be asked to switch positions again. The Steelers ask their outside linebackers to stand up on the edge and sometimes drop into pass coverage. Plenty of Steelers outside linebackers over the years have transitioned from college defensive end to linebacker, but it could take a little time for him to get comfortable.
“You know, so much of it is predicated on rush and the ability to rush,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “So, you see those things obviously when we watch his defensive end tape. The rest of the things you can glean just in terms of just evaluating the pedigree from at least an aptitude standpoint and some of the drills that are conducted in situations like [at the combine] in Indy. We were completely comfortable with his level of pedigree, in terms of his ability to move and move in space, and the rest is just teaching and learning.”
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: May 1, 2020, 3:30 p.m.
